Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-10-14
where, but the favor may be inferior to

8. This section is not often subject TO
drouth, snd the msjor part Of the fruit
crop is made before the dry season De-
gins. Wster Is abundant for irrigation :;
rsil1sys traverse the country st short dis
tances; transportation is aysilable for
shipping, and the health Is as good per-
hspS as in any part of the state.
6. The lands suitable for fruit growing
can be had ct reasonable distances from
the towns, az from 81 to SO per acre.
Z. The trees begin the second and third
year to bear; peaches and apples at five
years old will grow three to five bushels
each, and from that age slf kinds increase
until, sSy at ten years Clo, healthy trees
will average ten bushels Of msrkets ole
fruit.
This industry has become permanent,
is profitable snd requires less labor and
strain upon lsbOr tnan any other. Again,
it IS Intelligent, varied and pleasing TO
the mind, offering wide field for greater
development, and withal is hesiGhful
work. There are cases in this county
where individuals have earned in this
business, having fair orchards of fruit
and berries, as much as $4,000 in 6 single
year. No isborer can do this in the lead
ing staple products, however much he
tolls. II is estimated that Smith county
produced this year over 1000 bushels
of fruit, mvstly peaches, and marketed
about lOC, 00C~ bushels at an average OF
seventy-fVe cents per bushel, receiving 8
gross sum of $4,000 The two steam
canning factories located here handled
ell they could buy and ran on hklf-time.
They can manufacture 100000 cans OF
frni RI q Cuj1I ~ and coll m
them.
Here is an industry that cannot be
ovardoneI The world generally does rot
produce these fruits. Only this part Of
Texas can do so. This favored strip Of
lsnd grows them to perfection. Hence
the fear Of reproduction and lower
prices may be dismissed. If thousand
people p oduced fruits and grapes here
where only one does ROW the price would
increase, freight be reduced, and the
business prove more prof aole.
II these ssme lands were located in
Southern California, growing the same
fruits, they would sell at from $500 to
$1,000 per acre. Butthey are more favor
aoiy located; you are nearer the great
markets of demand, with cheaper trans
purtation, no hot deserts 30 cross, that
often rot the cargo shipped; and, finally,
you can market the fruit nearly two
months caller, ana thus secure the very
highest prices.
Let Us figure en- such an investment,
and draw fair conclusions, based on pss5
experience in the business. Take an
acre OF land, plant the trees twenty feet
apart each say, allow for fence, and you
have 100 trees (theY are usually planted
sixteen apart, making 169 trees per acre,
and do WelD. They begin to bear the
second year; but say base this cslculs
ton en- peach trees FIVE years old, and
which will increase in yield afterward or
in California, and yCu used orange ana
lemon trees, you could not use base of
figuring till the trees were ten years OF
sge). Now, take the least supposed pro-
ducrIon of fiVe-year-old tree, three
bushels CT marketable peaches, and for
100 trees you would get 800 bushels per
scre, and if you sold them here
at the average price this
year, they would bring 1925 per
acre. It is quite certain that one man
can cultivate twenty acres, end handle
the fruit easily; therefore, multiplied by
twenty you have $4,000 in gross on twenty
acres Of fruit This same fruit COM
mands much larger price shipped than
sold here, but this estimate is on its So e
to the canning factories here. Again,
the twenty acres grows, between
the rows, berries, melons, po-
tstoes, cotton and other products of value
to the farmer; but We throw that pro-
duct in for good measure. Then you
have twenty acres fruit crop, gross
$500. The actual labor, at the price
here, TO make aud market the crop, With
feed, fuel, team, wagon, tools, etc =,
would not cost over $500, but we will
put it at 5000, sud you have net $780,.
Now, to be very sure, and to fall below
any reasonable estimate, reduce these
figures one-third, $1,000. Balance Ret
S2400.
What other business offers such re-
munerstion? The average farmer, op
the same land, with the same team, toOfs
and conditions, Will not make, grOEiD g
wheat, corn or cotton, $500, and be under
q strain the entire year. The business
itself Of fruit growing is not only profit
able, but the investment in the land in
creases in value Just as the fruit growing
enhances, and Will outrun the current in
terest of the capital.
Can poor man engage in this BUSH
ness? Why not? He can cultivate the
land and grow abOut as much IS usual on
it until his fruit begins to earn money
The cost Of LAND, say S. per acre, grated
fruit trees each, seedlings l cent, an
orchard for one man will not require
more than $500, with an earning capacity
IS above described. II offers superior
inducements to a poor man, and 1t Is a
business that the females Of the family
may give much help to, and thus lud
profitable employment.
But while We have made figures OF d
one man crop, the field is much more
promising for larger capital, because the
cost decreases with an increase Of acre
age and appliances furnished by capital.
l submit that il capital fuds it profitable
to pay as high as $500 per acre in South
ern California for land OF which to raise
oranges and lemons that do not produce
ss much money per tree IS our fruits, and
cross the desert with product to the same
markets we sell in, that it may find it
more profitable to pay So to $40 per acre
here and grow fruit on a large scale.
When it is remembered that we have
ouly about one million of acres OF land
well adapted to growing the fruits named,
and that 60, 100000 of people (excepE the
few spots where fruits are grown for
maTket,) are begging for them fresh
from the trees, in their native beauty ana
luscious sweetness, or in lieu OF this, Tor